The Sinus Mazxillaris in Man. ae 
Before and during dentition the sinus maxillaris is separated 
from the front of the maxilla by the unerupted teeth (fig. 17). 
After the eruption of the deciduous teeth the cavity continues 
to have a more or léss rounded and elongated shape (fig. 5 D). 
It is really never spherical as is often stated, but has an irregular 
elongated form from the beginning. 
After the eruption of the permanent teeth the sinus begins to 
lose its rounded and elongated shape and to assume the adult 
pyramidal form (figs. 7, 8, and 9). By the twelfth or fifteenth 
year of age, when the second molar has appeared, the sinus 
approaches, though it has not yet attained its definite shape. 
The sinus reaches its full size between the fourteenth and eigh- 
teenth year. . 
THE ADULT SINUS MAXILLARIS. 
The adult sinus maxillaris was known to Galenus (130-201), 
‘but apparently Dr. Nathaniel Highmore was the first to give any 
detailed description of it. In his work (1651), ‘‘Corporis Humani 
Disquisitio Anatomica,” he describes the cavity in the maxilla, 
to which his attention was drawn by a lady patient, in whom 
an abscess of this cavity, since known as the antrum of Highmore 
(sinus maxillaris), was drained by the extraction of the canine 
tooth (left). The following are the exact words of Doctor 
Highmore in describing the cavity located in the body of the 
maxilla. His report of the case also follows. 
; ‘ANTRUM MAXILLA! SUPERIORIS.”’ 
Antrum hoc utrinque unum, sub oculi sede inferiore ubi os ad ocul 
tutelam quodammodo protuberat, ad latera inferiora nasi situm est. 
Insigniter cavum sphaericum, aliquantulum vero oblongum, et ita 
amplum ut articulus pollicis majoris pedis ultimus in illo delitescat, 
a oe Osse attenuata seu squamma osseA obtegitur: Os enim 
quod illud includit, et quod a dentium alveolis extremis distinguit, 
crassitie chartam Emporeticam non multum excedit. 
In basi hujus protuberantes quaedam eminentiae cernuntur, : 
Quibus dentium apices tenniores includuntur. . . ._. Dentium 
alveoli margini hujus ossis inferiori insculpuntur, quibus dentes in- 
